Love at times Is Simple
by Lady Sarah85
Summary: Elena works through her feelings for Stephan and Damon in her infamous diariy. A choice is made, hearts are broken but can they survive what comes next?
1. Chapter 1

_ How I wish love were simple. I wish Katherine had never come back into our lives. Well more back into their lives but mine by association. My doppelganger, my ancestor, _

_personal thorn in my side, monkey wrench in my life. I will not say that I wish that Stephan hadn't come into my life. I would be dead years ago if that were the case. I would _

_have drowned with my parents. I did wish for a moment that Damon had come into my life first. But when he snapped Jeremy's neck, I would have staked him myself and felt _

_no remorse. I had never been so angry at him. More so than with what happened with Vicky. But Jeremy was fine. Thank god Uncle John. Excuse me, my father (shudder) gave _

_him that ring. Damon said he didn't see it and that he didn't know what he would have done if Jeremy hadn't been. I told Damon our friendship was over after I used him. I used _

_him just as Katherine has for nearly a hundred and fifty years. I am more like her than I first thought. I hate myself for doing that. For looking just like her even through no fault _

_of my own. For playing the Salvatore brothers against each other even when I don't mean to. For letting Damon fall in love with me. For having to break his heart and pick _

_Stephan over him just as Katherine did and apparently still does. I want to forgive him completely for what happened with Jeremy. I know that he was drunk and upset and that _

_normally he wouldn't have let it come down like that. I shouldn't believe that but before she came back, Damon was getting better. He still is but now... Now I don't know what to _

_do. There are werewolves, Katherine, Caroline being a new born Vampire and Bonnie blaming Damon for anything that has gone wrong and could go wrong. She tried to burn him _

_alive for doing something that she agreed to. She told him to give Caroline his blood. How were we to know that Katherine would do something like that? It retrospect we should _

_have known better. So here it is, the bottom line. The thing that I have been wracking my brains out over. The reason I am writing this entry, the reason that I am pounding _

_down a pint of Ben and Jerry's and the reason I am sure Damon is pounding down scotch with equal abandon. I don't know how I feel about him. I know I care about him. I know _

_that this crushing feeling of guilt I have after telling him our friendship is over is more than I think I can handle. I do want to be his friend. I want him in my life. But that is _

_unbelievably selfish. I cannot tear apart that Salvatore brothers. I will not be Katherine. I WILL not succumb to her desire to see us all burn. Well everyone except Stephan. How _

_could I have used Damon like that? What is wrong with me? I am so frustrated with myself and all this vampire BULLSHIT! I realize of course that is over simplifying the whole _

_thing. Urgh. Maybe I should call and apologize. He was honest with me. He could have lied and said that he had seen the ring. He could have done that thing with his eyebrows _

_that both annoys and makes me smile and said yes that he saw it. Done the typical Damon thing. Only he doesn't do the typical Damon things as much. The Jeremy incident was _

_an accident. A vampire accident but really it ended up alright. Not really but Jeremy's not dead so in the end no harm done. Again that's not really true but what I tend to forget _

_sometimes, I forget it more than I should really. Damon is a vampire. He has been a hunter and killer for decades. Stephan wasn't always on the wagon either. This is pointless! _

_I'm going to call and apologize. _

Elena closed her diary and pushed her self off the bed and kneeled on the floor to pull up the lose floor board under her bed and placed her diary inside before replacing the board

firmly on top. Since Jeremy had found her old hiding spot she had been moving her diary after each time she wrote in it. God forbid someone worse than he little brother find

what was written in the pages. She stood and brushed invisible dust off her knees. Elena picked up her cell phone from her night stand and flipped it opened. She scrolled down to

Damon's number. She had renamed him in her address book. Instead of reading _Damon _it now read: _Jerk _childish but effective. She clicked on his number, and immediately hung

up.

"So stupid!" she fumed quietly to herself. She walked to the bathroom to brush her teeth and pull her hair back into a ponytail. Elena walked to her room while she was yanking

her hair up into a high pony tail. She picked her cell phone and dialed Damon's number and waiting. She impatiently paced back and forth. Her heart was beating a mile a minute

waiting for him to pick up.

"You've reached Damon Salvatore. I can't come to phone right now so leave a message." Elena rolled her eyes in frustration and waited for the beep. It did and she remained

silent, surprised by the sound of it. Nothing. No words, not a single thing to say. Elena hung up and flopped back onto her bed, covering her eyes with her arm. Maybe the whole

thing was getting to complicated. She didn't want to be like Katherine. She didn't want to be the one to pull the Salvatore's apart. Elena got up and pulled her diary back out. She

felt better and more focused when writing. The swirling thoughts in her head became coherent sentences.

_ It's bad enough with everything with Katherine but now with the Lockwood's secret being made known to us. We have a psycho, vengeful vampire out for who knows what but _

_most likely our completely annihilation now we have a werewolf that Damon pissed off running amok. Now Caroline's mum knows about Stephan and Damon and Caroline. The _

_chief of police, a member of the council who existed in 1864 to drive out the vampires and still exists for that same purpose. Now my feeling for Damon are all foggy. This _

_stupid fake fight with Stephan certainly worked for awhile but of course I should have seen that I would really start thinking about the things we were saying. I don't know _

_anymore. With Stephan there is something always dark and dramatic brewing just below the surface. That crinkle he gets between his eyebrows. If he were human that crinkle _

_would stick. His blood lust sometimes gets out of control. Its hard to be around me sometimes for that very reason. Damon on the other hand. Some of his unpredictability is _

_predictable. It's when he consistently does caring things that throw me for a loop. I can see him trying to be good. At first I thought it was just to impress me. Now I think _

_maybe we've got the Salvatore brothers confused. Damon is the one who truly has the heart and is safe to be around the Stephan is the deadly one…I saw that didn't I? With the _

_whole blood drinking debacle before. I mean yes I am helping him build up a tolerance but what if this back fires? And more to the point, what if it back fires on me while his _

_teeth are in my wrist? I suppose I could hope that Damon would be home and be able to pull Stephan off me. That is incredibly stupid, naive and extremely selfish. I know how _

_strongly Damon feels for me and how much I hurt him by using him. I need him to keep being good, to keep trying and I think he knows that. He wants my friendship and trust _

_back more than anything. I see that on the very surface of those amazing blue eyes. When other people are around he never gives me that look. Never quirks his eyebrow the _

_same way as he does when we're alone. He barely does that smolderingly look behind Stephan's shoulder. I can feel burning a whole in my back and occasionally my butt when _

_he's behind me when we're alone. The only time he really did it in complete public was when were dancing. I couldn't admit it at the time but I had never wished so much that it _

_had been Damon and not Stephan I had met first. The Damon that I was and could be friends with again. The Damon who knows what he's done but wants to do better, to be _

_good, to have my love. I know however that without Stephan I would have drowned with my parents. It's one giant never ending circle of madness. 1864 haunts me nearly as _

_much as it must haunt them. If Katherine hadn't have come back…Then who knows. Well for starters Caroline wouldn't be a vampire and her mother wouldn't have found out _

_about the Salvatore's. I never would know that I was adopted, that my own mother was made a vampire by Damon, that my own mother was working for Katherine. I suppose _

_we could just go on as we are. Waiting for the council to find out, wait for the Lockwood's curse to spread, wait for Katherine's plans to reveal themselves, and continue to burn _

_myself alive from the inside out thinking about Damon. _

**A few weeks later...**

_ So now we know. Fanstatic. The Orignals coming for my blood, coming for those I love. I broke down in Stephan's arms. Out of fear, out of sheer exhustion. When he and Damon _

_rescued me, I would have run into Damon's arms but Stephan was too quick for me. I should have kept running towards Damon. After he dissapeared through my window after _

_returning my necklace, I should have called and told him I remebered what he said when he thought I was being compelled. How do I say it? How do I explain the depth of my _

_longing? The depth of my despair? I would feel alright if he would let me finish the sentance. I would feel alright if he would tell me again that he loves me. I would feel alright if _

_he would only wake me from this unbelieveable nightmare we're all living in right now. He would make me happy. Through my suffering I have learned to believe he'll be waiting _

_for me. He's always there. With the truth, with a shoulder, with his help, with his love. I am tried of fighting for a relasonship with Stephan. It brings lies and misery and _

_Katherine will follow him from the very depth of hell to haunt our lives. I don't feel safe with him any more. No more. I am making my choice for good or ill. No more being _

_afaird. No more Katherine bullshit. No more lies and decet. Damon loves me so much is being completely unselfess for Stephan and our friendships sake. He doesn't relieze the _

_black cloud he has placed on my life by making me forget. No more. _

Elena closed her dairy and returned it to her hiding spot. She got threw a pair of jeans on over her pjs and grabbed her leather jacket and keys. She yanked her hair out of the

pony tail on her way down the stairs, fluffing it out with her hands. She pulled on a pair of black ballet flats by the door and left quietly. She started her car and started driving

towards the Salvatore boarding house. Half way there however a horrorfying relazation came to mind. She still hadn't broken up with Stephan. And worse Rose was there. She

knew Damon would feel rejected and dejected enough to have slept with thier new follower.

"Shit!" Elena shouted hitting the sterring wheel with the heel of her plamb and slamming on the brakes.

She sat there parked in the middle of the road, each hand gripped on the wheel. She could feel tears prickling her eyes. She took a deep calming breath. It didn't work, it was

raggade, like broken glass in her chest. Elena began to wiegh her options. The first and most likely choice was to just turn around drive back home, climb into bed, and deal with it

in the morning. The second was to continue to the Boarding House, break up with Stephan in a calm controlled way (sort of) and then avoid Damon and Rose. mostly Rose. and

Damon for the time being.

'Yeah right.' Elena thought smiling sligthly through the tears.

Her avoiding Damon. He could avoid her like she couldn't believe, but the other way around never worked as well. Especally when a large part of her didn't want to avoid him at

all. It began to occur to her that sitting out in the middle of no where in the middle of the night was a very VERY bad idea. Elena turned her car around and started to head home.

She pulled in her drive way and slowly trudged her way back up to bed. She dropped her jacket on the floor and noticed how cold her room was. The window was opened.

"Where were you?" came a voice concenred from the window sill.

Stephan stuck his head in. Elena sighed. At this point she had been hoping to be able to put the whole thing off until tommorow, mabye this way she'd be able to get some sleep.

"I just went to a drive Stephan."

He was climbing in the window and moving towards her to take her into his arms. Elena stepped back before he could reach her. His face fell as quickly as his outstreached arms.

"What's the matter?" Stephan asked, his forhead wrinkling into full broodey mode.

Elena smiled gently and sat down on the edge of her bed.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking Stephan," Elena was picking at her bedspread as she started. "I don't feel safe being with you anymore." Stephan opened his mouth to say

something. Elena raised her hand and looked up. "I know what you're going to say. I am terrofied of whats happing with The Orignals. What could happen to my friends and

family. I feel like if you find out any more information you're not going to tell me." Stephan moved closer and Elena held up her hand again. "Let me finish. It wouldn't be the first

time you kept me in the dark for my own good. I feel like I am constantly fighting to keep a relasonship with you. I have enough fighting ahead of me. I will always love you and

always be your friend but I can't be with you anymore."

Elena finished feeling a wieght lift from her shoulders. She felt a bit guiltly but it had to been done. There was no taking it back now. She slowly looked up at Stephan. His mouth

was in a tight line and his hands clenched into fists. His eyes had darkened. Elena backed up on her bed.

"This is because of Damon isn't it?" Stephan asked barely above a whisper. He took a step closer to Elena.

"No. It isn't," Elena said calmly and with complete honsety.

"Are you in love with him?" Stephan demanded.

He was hovering over her with a murderous look in his eye. Elena swollowed and try to back up more. Stephan grabbed her shoulders and shook her violetly.

"Stephan! You're hurting me!" Elena shouted.

"Do you love him!" He shouted, his eyes going dark the viens around his eyes popping.

"Yes," Elena whispered terrorfied.

She felt his hands tighten on his arms. She whimpered in pain. Jeremey burst into her room, followed very quickly by Jenna and Alaric.

"Put her down Stephan!" Jeremey shouted.

From behind him Alaric was dropping a stake into his hand from his sleeve.

"Stephan!" Jenna admonised shocked by his behavoir.

Elean could feel the tears coursing down her face. She knew that this would be hard to Stephan to hear but she never expected him to hurt her. Maybe his intake of human blood

no matter how small the amount, was a very bad idea. Stephan dropped her roughly onto the bed and stalked out the room with out a word. Jeremy and Alaric parted to let him

pass. Jenna stepped into his path. The boy went on full alert.

"You are not longer invited inside this house." Jenna said coldly. "I want you to leave and never come back here."

Stephan nodded starring at the floor and left quickly without a word. Elena curled into a ball. Jeremy sat with her and pulled her into his arms.

"What happened?" he asked softly, smoothing Elena's hair.

"We broke up."

"I'm sorry sweetie." Jenna said coming over to sit with the siblings.

Alaric had stepped out to make sure Stephan left. Elena could hear him on the phone. She hoped and feared that it was Damon on the other line. Stephan was probley hauling ass

towards the Boarding House to beat him up. Or worse. It was that thought that brought on the sobbing. Jeremey and Jenna held her tightly between them was the

hyperventalating started.

"I am Katherine" Elena whispered between sobs. "He's going to kill him."

She squeezed her eyes shut as she heard footsteps coming fast up the stairs.

"Elena?" asked a soft concerned voice from the floor in front of her.

Elena's eyes shot opened. Damon's blue eyes were searching her face, shinning with worry. Jenna and Jeremy let go as Elena bounded into Damon's arms. He embraced her back

just a quickly. She began to sob harder than she was before. She gripped onto tightly to his leather jacket, soaking the black tight tee shirt in front of her.

"What happened?" Damon asked Jeremy without letting go of the broken girl in his arms.

"She broke up with Stephan. He hurt her. We came in here when she shouted. Stephan had her by the shoulders and he shook her." Jeremy said this giving a Damon a look that

said how much Stephan could have hurt Elena.

"I told him he couldn't come back." Jenna said getting up. She rubbed Elena's back and walked to the door. "I'll go make some tea."

Jeremy followed her. "Holler if you need anything." Damon nodded.

He sat Elena gently on the bed. He leaned against her head board and pulled her up his side to rest her head on his chest. The sobbing become the occasional sniffle and hiccup.

"He scared me Damon," Elena whispered. "I thought he was really going to hurt me."

Damon rubbed her back soothingly unsure of what to say. He really wanted to go out and kill Stephan, or at least maim him beyond reconiztion for hurting Elena.

"Alaric called to tell me that Stephan was here and you needed help. I came as soon as I could." He pressed a kiss to her forhead. "He also told me that Stephan was probley

going to try and kill me. What did I do this time?"

"You love me." Elena whispered snuggling into his chest.

She felt Damon stiffen. She looked up at him.

"Who told you that?" He asked quirking an eye brow at her. "Isobel?"

"You did." Elena spoke softly.

Damon jumped back from her and off the bed.

"What?" He asked sounding shocked and angery.

"I remeber." Elena said simpley.

"How?" Damon asked sitting back on the bed slowly.

"Partically everything to eat or drink here has a touch of Verviane in it. Since Katherine compelled Jenna into stabbing herself I've been adding to anything I could think of."

"So what made Stephan hurt you?" Damon asked ignoring the new information for now. noticing the qucikly forming brusies on both of Elena's arms.

Elena felt suddenly nervous. This was the moment. She could put all her cards on the table and let the chips fall were they may.

"I told him something he didn't want to hear. Something that has been on my mind at every waking moment. Something that has been on the tip of my touge, that has sent me

dialing your number and hanging up in fear."

Elena took a deep breath.

"I love you too."

Damon's lips were on her's faster than Elena thought possible. His hands on either side of her face. His lips were soft and warm moving in tandeum with Elena's. When his togune

swept gently into Elena's mouth she was lost. Her arms came up around Damon's leather encased shoulders pulling him closer. Kissing Damon felt like a cosmic puzzle piece had

fallen into place. Like gravity. Thier whole world had shifted to where it was suppose to be. Elena felt whole, safe and loved. Nothing in the world mattered, nothing would or could

stop them from loving eachother. Damon pulled her up higher and Elena wrapped her legs around his waist to deepen the kiss. Her hands worked into his soft brown hair pulling

gently. Elena grinned into the kiss as she heard Damon growl. His hands were tight around her holding Elena close. She pulled back to take a breath. Resting her forhead against

Damon's staring down at his shining blue eyes.

"I love you Elena," Damon whispered. He let all his love for her shin through his eyes. He felt free finally not having to hide his feelings.

Elena sighed and closed her eyes.

"Say it again," she whispered snuggling her face into his neck.

"I love you."

Elena punkuaded each word with a soft kiss to Damon's neck. She pulled back to look at his handsome face.

"I love you Damon." Elena said smiling at him.

Author's Note:

Alright kids, I hope you liked it. There is more if you want it. Let me know.


	2. Chapter 2

Jenna came in a bit later and subtlety kicked Damon out for the night. He crept back in the window after he moved his car down the street. He climbed back into bed and held Elena against his chest. She was

sleeping soundly her head resting on Damon's shoulder. He had watched her sleep so many times over the past few months, but never did he think he'd really be holding her while she slept. She mumbled his

name and he held he tighter. He been heartbroken having to compel her, truthfully he was elated that it hadn't worked. Damon swore to himself never to compel Elena again. As truly happy as he was knowing

that Elena loved him, Damon could practally see the terror coming on the horizon. It made the moment nearly bitter sweet.

"I love you Elena," he whispered passionately and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.

He would fight for this. Damon knew now more clearly than anyother moment how much he loved Elena. She made him a better person...well vampire. She brought back his humanity and he loved her all the more

for it. He snuggled deeper under than blankets with Elena and fell asleep quickly.

Elena awoke after the best sleep she had experinced in months. She was safely wrapped in a pair of strong arms. She smiled down at Damon's fimilar ring. She ran a finger across the crest gently. She inhailed his

amazing smell and rolled over to face him as carefully as she could. She looked up at his face. Damon's eyes were closed but she could tell he was pretending to be asleep by the way he was smirking. She sliently

studied his face. She placed a hand on his cheek and he opened his eyes. Elena found herself surpised by how truely blue his eyes were. There was a difference in them now, they looked softer to her. She knew

that his walls were completely down for her. Damon would only look at her that way. She had seen hints of it for months but now she felt as though she were the only girl in the world. Damon moved his head to

kiss her palm. Elena felt her heart rate pick up a tick.

"Good morning Princess." Elena grinned at the nickname. "Good morning," she said ducking her head, feeeling suddenly shy.

Damon placed a finger under her chin and brought her head up. He gazed at her with intensity memorzing Elena's face. When he had first saw her Elena was nothing but Katherine's exact double, physcally any

way. Through the recent months though he had noticed things about Elena's face that were so much more endearing and wonderfully human. Tiny little laugh lines, a small patch of barely noticeable freclkes on

her nose and they way her heart beat would become eract when he was near her or kissed her. To compare the two of them now felt like out and out adultry. Elena was his second chance. He had thought he

was searching for Katherine over all those years, maybe really he was searching for Elena.

"I love you." Damon pulled her into a powerful kiss.

Every time he kissed her the world felt right. All the fear of things to come left him, everything from his past was slightly more cleansed. He would do anything to keep feeling like this. To keep loving her. To keep

Elena safe.

Elena meanwhile was drowning in his kisses. She had never been kissed like this. She was becoming quickly addicted. Elena rolled unto of Damon pinning him to her bed. His shirt was unbottoned in seconds and

she attacked his gourgus chest with open mouth kisses. Her bed room door chose that moment to burst opened.

"Elena! I know how to break the curse!" Bonnie shouted excited. Jeremy, Caroline, and Tyler following right behind her.

"Whoa! Scared for life!" Jeremy cried dramatically covering his face.

"Well give you guys a minute," Caroline said quickly ushering the other three out of the room.

Elena hadn't moved from stradling Damon. His hands where still half raised reaching for her sides. They stared at the door dumbfounded.

"What the hell was that?" Damon asked annoyed.

"Our cue to save this for later." Elena grinned and kissed his nose before getting out of bed.

Author's Note:

Just a quicky so you know I'm still working! More up soon! Hope you enjoyed it!


	3. Chapter 3

Elena pulled on her jeans from last night. Damon still hadn't moved from her bed. He had sat up against the head board with his hands behind his head watching her. Elena noticed and decided to give him a bit of

a show. She slowly pulled off her tank top showing every inch of skin as it was going up. When she pulled it over her head she had planned on throwing it at him.

"You are such a tease," Damon whispered huskily from right in front of her.

Elena still had her shirt over her face. Damon pulled it off. He ran his hands down her sides and Elena shivered. His eyes were blazing down at her. Elena leaned up on her tip toes to meet his lips. Damon pulled

her flush against his body deepen the kiss. Elena moaned into the kiss.

"Are you guys coming down or what?" Caroline shouted from downstairs.

Elena and Damon got themselves straightened. Elena pulled on a long sleeve navy blue shirt and Damon reluctantly rebuttoned his shirt. They tromped down the stairs holding hands. Damon flopped on the couch

and pulled a giggling Elena into his lap.

"Alright what have you figured out Bennett?" Damon asked not looking at Bonnie.

Elena turned to look at her friend who was sitting on the floor with the Grimoure opened in front of her. There were a pile of photocopied information covered in what looked like Alaric's hand writing. Some of it

barely legible. Elena was distracted by Damon pressing a kiss behind her ear. She smiled back at him as he quirked an eye brow at her.

Jeremy gagged watching them, Elena pinched him. Tyler looked a bit awkward with their group but she knew Caroline was helping him a lot with all the new information he'd learned in such a sort time.

"Well," Bonnie began looking at each of them. "We know that the moon stone will break the spell that forces werewolves to turn at the full moon, and if a vampire is the one who is able to break the spell

werewolves will stop coming after vampires and vise versa." They all nodded.

"I don't know how word like that is suppose to get out," Damon stated. "It's not like we have a higherarcy, or a message board."

Bonnie ignored him for the time being. "There is also the sun stone, which contains the spell that keeps vampire from walking in the sun. Currently we don't have to even worry about that. You guys have your

rings. Now if we take what Katherine says as true."

Damon laughed rudely and loudly.

"Then to break the curse of the moon we need a witch, a vampire and the blood of the Petrova doppleganger. The question I have been trying to figure out is two things. The first being who has the moon stone?"

"Katherine. In the tomb." Damon and Elena said together.

"Alright, deal with that in a minute." Bonnie said sighing. "The next question is how much blood are we talking?"

"Katherine seemed to make it sound like a every single drop thing," Elena said softly.

Damon pulled her back against his chest and held her tightly.

"Is it just Elena's blood were talking? or do the vampire and werewolf have to donate as well?" Jeremy asked, casting a quick look at Tyler who was starring down at the rug.

"It seems like it has to be blood from every one involved. Witch, vampire, werewolf and a Petrova. And obviously from a human Petrova doppleganger, or else we'd just use Katherine." Bonnie said coldly.

"Why exactly are we trying to figure out the amount of blood any way?" Damon growled out starting to see where Bonnie was going with this plan. "Are you going to hand her over to The Originals and hope they

send her back alive?"

"Oh course not Damon! I plan on breaking the spell myself." Bonnie stated.

Author's Note:

Sorry for another short one! The next few coming up will be longer and will take me a bit longer as well but don't worry I will keep going! I hope you enjoyed this! Stay tunned for more soon! J


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